World News - Freedom Wasn't So Sweet for Pope Shooter After His Release, Turkish Man Lands Back in Jail

Freedom wasn't so sweet for the pope's failed assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca. Not sweet but short, definitely. In the end, though, his brief exit from the walls of the maximum-security Kartal prison in eastern Istanbul may very well have been more painfully bitter than if he'd stayed put. Goodbye Freedom This weekend state prosecutors calculated that Agca actually has another four years to serve before he will complete his sentence for murdering a prominent Turkish newspaper editor two years before he tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981. Agca was freed from jail on Jan. 12; he was taken back into custody on Jan. 20. ... http://abcnews.go.com

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said Thursday he was ready to maintain a cease-fire with Israel forged in February 2005 if Israel does likewise, but that the Islamic group will respond to attacks. "If they are going to continue commitment to what is called quietness, then we will continue," he said in an interview with Associated Press Television News. "But if not, then I think we will have no option, but to protect our people and our land." The impromptu interview took place in the garden of Zahar's Gaza City home, where he received party officials and other well-wishers who came to congratulate him on the militant Islamic group's apparent victory in Wednesday's parliamentary elections....http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1544378

Israel's Mossad spy service and a foreign counterpart enlisted a confidante of Osama bin Laden to kill the al Qaeda leader in 1996 but the plan fell apart over a political dispute, a newspaper said on Thursday. Mossad picked up bin Laden's trail while helping U.S. and Egyptian agents probe an attempt by Islamist militants on the life of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak as he visited Ethiopia, Israeli daily Yedioth Aharonoth said citing security sources.According to the report, Mossad recruited a woman close to bin Laden with the help of the intelligence service in her country. Neither the woman's name nor nationality were given.Yedioth said the woman was meant to kill bin Laden, but the mission was aborted as a result of a breakdown of ties between Israel and her country linked to Israeli-Palestinian tensions....http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060126/ts_nm/security_israel_binladen_dc

Bush on Thursday did not rule out dealing with Hamas, which won the Palestinian parliamentary elections, but said the militant Islamic group would have to renounce its call for Israel's destruction. “Peace is never dead,” Bush said at a news conference when asked if he ruled out ever dealing with Hamas. But he added that “if your platform is the destruction of Israel, it means you’re not a partner in peace, and we’re interested in peace.” Asked in a follow-up question if he was ruling out dealing with a Palestinian government that was made up partly of Hamas, he replied: “They don’t have a government yet, so you’re asking me to speculate on what the government will look like. I have made it very clear however that a political party that articulates the destruction of Israel as part of a platform is a party with which we will not deal.” Bush called the election results a “wake-up call” to the old guard Palestinian leadership, many of whom are holdovers from the days of Yasser Arafat...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11040344/from/RSS/

Forget learning lines or polishing jokes - having sex may be the best way to prepare for giving a speech. New Scientist magazine reports that Stuart Brody, a psychologist at the University of Paisley, found having sex can help keep stress at bay. However, only penetrative intercourse did the trick - other forms of sex had no impact on stress levels at all. Professor Brody monitored how various forms of sex affected blood pressure levels in a stressful situation. For a fortnight, 24 women and 22 men kept diaries of how often they engaged in various forms of sex. Then they underwent a stress test involving public speaking and performing mental arithmetic out loud. Volunteers who had had penetrative intercourse were found to be the least stressed, and their blood pressure returned to normal faster than those who had engaged in other forms of sexual activity such as masturbation. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4646010.stm

General Motors has posted a quarterly net loss in the face of high costs, reduced market share and flat sales of sport utility vehicles (SUVs). GM, the largest carmaker in the world, said its fourth-quarter net loss was $4.8bn (£2.7bn), from $99m last year. Revenue fell to $51.2bn, from $51.4bn during the same period in 2004. "2005 was one of the most difficult years in GM's history, driven by poor performance in North America," GM chief executive Rick Wagoner said. Rising materials and labour costs, as well as a loss of market share to Japanese rivals and a drop-off in demand for SUVs, all contributed to the malaise. However, in a stroke of good news, billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian has increased his stake in GM. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4650872.stm